Beliefs

Belief 1: I successfully assisted William FitzAlan’s escape. He’s pledged loyalty to Ranulf and making his way to the Welsh Marches. William was supposed to supply an artifact to me as part of the deal, but it’s sealed away at Shrewsbury Abbey. I’m to meet his contact there, obtain the artifact, and deliver it to Ranulf.

The preamble of this belief is helpful; The heart of the belief starts “William was supposed…”. We can discard the leading two sentences and have the same resulting belief. Those two sentences are very helpful as a GM for our first session.

Belief 2: It’s too risky to transport this artifact alone back to Chester. Too many patrols. Too many desperate deserters turned bandit. There are a lot of refugees at this abbey. Maybe some might help escort me back to Chester for food, a little pay, and the promise of steady employment.

There is a lot of background, which is again helpful. At present, this is an opinionated placeholder for when other character beliefs materialize.

Belief 3: I will advance my status and wealth to return my family to the peerage.

An excellent Artha mine; It informs all other beliefs. When acting, the player can frame task and intent with this in mind.

Instincts

Instinct 1: While at ports, large markets, or trade fairs, always chitchat with fellow merchants and look over their wares. Prioritize the exotic and foreign. Did I cram too damn much in this instinct?

I love the intention; I’m uncertain how this will play out. There are implications in training a skill - Merchant-wise - but also in pulling the character into an unwanted action; Especially if there is something that targets their other instinct.

Instinct 2: If in the presence of a rare or exotic craft good, appraise and/or experience wonderment (as per Dwarf Wonderment minus “I must have it”)
* “I must have it” doesn’t square with my characters ethos belief (trade must flow > personal gain). It might be interesting to replace it with “I must know more about it! / I must find out where you got this!”.
* Concerned that the GM might think this is soliciting for steel tests. This is such a good and fitting flavor instinct for this character that I’d be willing to forgo some or all steel tests for it. Wait, do instincts automatically bypass tests?
* I’m making this much harder than it should be, aren’t I?

There is a glorious intention here. Some refinements:

I must always know more about rare or exotic craft goods.

Never pass by a rare or exotic good without inspecting it.

I’m disinclined to allow for something that mirrors Dwarven Wonderment and the associated Steel tests. The instinct can aim towards that emotion, but I feel that for dwarves this is an important separation.

As the game progresses, I think trait votes can begin to subsume the instinct into something that is very much an analogue to Dwarven Wonderment.

Also, my understanding of instincts is that they do not bypass tests.

Instinct 3: Always carry a packet of herbs to ward off the disease-ridden miasma. There, an easy one. It’s based in character history, requires a piece of gear, and will probably mess up a sneak test or twelve.

Pure awesome!

Traits

T1: Paranoid (Smuggler req, char)

T2: Distracted (Merchant req, char)

T3: Ambitious (General, 1pt, char)

T4: Tolerant (General, 1pt, char)

In the previous go round, the player gave notes about being an ambitious smuggler. But didn’t have the Ambitious character trait. Now the character is Ambitious.